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Tuesday, 30 October 2007

Strawberry Crumble Cake

I bought a punnet of strawberries yesterday, as usual, they were too sour to eat on it's own. I looked through some recipes and decided to use them to make a crumble cake. I have been wanting to try this blueberry crumble cake recipe which I came across from a book, Cooking Desserts. I was really captivated by the beautiful photo of the cake and I've meant to try it once I get hold of some blueberries. Since I have yet to get any blueberries, I thought I should experiment it with strawberries instead. Hence, I got myself busy this afternoon and baked this Strawberry Crumble Cake.

Although I have whole-wheat (or wholemeal) flour on hand, I replaced it with almond meal as I am starting to like the taste of ground almonds in cakes. The original recipe uses chopped pecans for the toppings, but I used some left over walnuts instead. I also cut down the sugar a little, as I thought a full cup of sugar would be too sweet. This cake requires some extra effort as you will need to spend some time to dice the strawberries, chop-up the walnuts (I break them into pieces), and zest the lemon. Once the initial preparations were done, the mixing of the batter was rather straight forward. All that was required was mixing the dry ingredients together, whisk the wet ingredients separately, then pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and gave a few stir to combine. The toppings was also very easy, just combine everything together, sprinkle over the batter and finally drizzle some oil over and very soon it was ready for baking.

Since I wasn't sure whether the cake was thoroughly cooked through, I gave it another extra 5 to 10 mins in the oven. As a result, some of the walnuts were a little burnt although it didn't really affect the taste too much. The cake itself has got the texture which is almost similar to the strawberry yoghurt cake I did earlier. The difference lies on the toppings. It really gave the cake a very nice, sweet and nutty touch to it. The cake tasted delicious despite the tangy strawberries :)

Hi Sherlyn, don't me wrong :) It's perfectly alright to post about unsuccessful attempts. I have done it several times. I didn't write about the chocolate cookies as I was a little disappointed with the result, and hence didnt have the heart to take photos as the weather was very gloomy and I knew that the photos will not turn out well without sufficient light.

I am sure your kids are still young to be able to appreciate certain texture/taste of food. Don't worry, just expose them to as many varieties of food as possible, especially those healthy ones. I always tell my kids to try, if they don't like it, they can always eat a smaller portion. btw, I got the plates from Daiso, you can find many nice ones there :)

Hi HHB,I tried this recipe today. Its very yummy - texture of cake is moist n the nutty topping is crunchy, very nice combo! Extra bonus - uses 1/3 cup oil, less fattening. So can bake more often!! :) Im gonna try next time with blueberries! Thks for sharing!

Hi Susanana, after leaving this cake overnight (at room temperature), I put it in the oven for a few mins to warm it up...and it tasted even better! I will sure try it with blueberries. I tried with strawberries as I couldn't wait...it is "less fattening" compared to other cakes, like u say only 1/3 cup oil and only 1 egg. I have also cut down on the amount of sugar.

your cake looks yummy... I tried your Low-fat Orange Yogurt cake for thrice...and received rave reviews from my kids, husband,in-laws family and hubby's colleagues!! I took your advice to reduce the sugar level further (I used 160g) and the cake came out just nice, not too sweet,perfect!My mum-in-law who was diabetic even commented it was just right for her.. Thanks for your inspirational blog! BTW, where can you get almond meal? I don't seem to find it @ ntuc? Many thanks! MH

Hi MH, I am pleased to hear that your family and friends like the cake!! Thanks for your kind words :)You can get almond meal at ntuc, go to the baking section (very small usually!) and look for those packets of nuts and seeds. The brand available is Bake King (comes in 100g pack). You can also get it from Phoon Huat which is cheaper. It's also available at Sheng Shiong or Giant. It is usually called almond powder intead of almon meal...they are the same.

I was wondering if you have tried baking with organic bread flour. I've been trying to find a shop that sells organic bread flour but all I've managed to buy is plain organic wholewheat flour and unbleached organic flour, but no bread flour. Do you know where I can buy organic bread flour from?

Hi Mamapanda, are you a local here? I can't seems to be able to view your blog. I have not tried baking with organic flour. In fact I have not cooked/made anything that's organic, other than having some organic strawberries ;) As such I have not been to any shops that specialise in organic products. But I do notice some organic flours available at Carrefour and the Cold storage outlets at Vivo City. However, I have not taken any notice whethere there are any organic bread flour. I will let you know if i happen to see it.

Hi Michele, I have not tried with wholemeal flour, however, I have used wholemeal flour in place of almond meal for a tart recipe, and it works just fine. Hope your wholemeal version turns out well, happy baking!

Made this the other day. Taste was amazing even though it didn't turn out perfect. I think my strawberry chunks were too big, they all sunk to the bottom making the bottom mushy. Even from the topping. Will try again with smaller chunks. The walnuts were good in this. Thanks, Michelle